


Shift in Ownership

by Skeren



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:15:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5850019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skeren/pseuds/Skeren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ling finally got noticed by the State.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shift in Ownership

**Author's Note:**

> Written October of 2005. It's another one I can't pin a posting date on.

As of that morning, Ling was an official visitor to Amestris. The change of status hadn’t been planned, but he had found that it came with certain… benefits. He no longer had to concern himself over the accommodations or worry that Edward would come to blows with him for his less than appreciated smiles and demeanor. 

Not to say that he was on bad terms with the alchemist. They’d gone their separate ways with calm, and Ling had finally found himself in a position that meant that the military was aware of his presence. They hadn’t particularly wanted to deal with the fear of handling royalty, but they could no longer turn a blind eye once he’d come to their attention. The solution for all parties had apparently been to give him an escort, but one that the military was no longer worried about losing. If he disappeared, as he was prone to, while in the man’s care, then it was excusable. After all, the man couldn’t walk. 

The Xingian wasn’t sure whether to be amused or annoyed by how he was being brushed off. The state paid his hotel and food bills, they gave him an escort, and they considered him taken care of. They would stay out of his way if he stayed out of theirs. Even if he was royalty, he wasn’t important, nor expected, so it made a slightly depressing sort of sense. The courts back home would not have been nearly so live and let live about the affair if an officer had ended up on their side of the desert. In all, it was a win win situation. 

Still, he didn’t know what to do with the officer. The man had been wheeled into the hotel where he, Ran Fan, and Fu were currently staying, introduced, and then left to their whim. It had been made clear before the man had been given into their care that he was their escort, and he was more or less under the foreigner’s command so long as nothing asked of him would go against his country.

In essence, Ling had acquired another servant for the time being.


End file.
